Alabama comes up short in Sweet 16, loses to San Diego State 71-64
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Alabama Crimson Tide’s magical 2022-2023 season has come to an end. Bama’s men’s basketball team, which had earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, fell to San Diego State 71-64 on Friday night.
Bama (31-6) started off the game 5-of-19 from the field and just 1-of-9 on their three-point attempts. Along with being inefficient shooting the ball, Nate Oats’ group turned the ball over seven times in the first half and star freshman Brandon Miller recorded two early fouls.
The Crimson Tide went into halftime shooting just 27.6 percent from the field and an uncharacteristic 9.1 percent from three. While San Diego State’s offense wasn’t much better (32.4 percent from the field), they led 28-23 at the half.
In the next nine and a half minutes of play, Alabama took control of the game. Bama went on a 25-11 run, with six different players scoring points during that span. They also got things going inside and out, knocking down a couple of three-pointers and recording three dunks in this stretch.
San Diego State, however, responded by going on a 12-0 run to regain the lead. Down the stretch, the Aztecs’ Darrion Trammell made two big jump shots, with junior Micah Parrish connecting on a key three-pointer to put SDSU up two possessions with 4:35 left in the game.
Alabama tried to get momentum back with a Jahvon Quinerly-to-Charles Bediako lob to cut the lead down to seven points. The following possession, San Diego State’s Matt Bradley, who struggled throughout the game, made a jump shot to put his team up nine points.
Veteran Mark Sears made things interesting down the stretch, scoring seven points to cut their deficit to two points. In the end, Bama’s poor shooting from the field, specifically beyond the arc, was too much to overcome on Friday.
Freshman superstar Brandon Miller shot just 3-of-19 from the field and missed nine of his 10 three-point attempts, finishing with nine points and 11 rebounds. Ohio transfer Mark Sears was the leading scorer for Alabama with 16 points, eight of them coming from the free throw line.
As a team, the Crimson Tide shot just 32.4 percent from the field and 11.1 percent from three. Alabama did out-rebound San Diego State 52-48 and had a better free throw percentage (75 percent to 59.1 percent) than the Aztecs, but committed two more turnovers on the night. SDSU also had the edge in the blocks (8 to 5) and steals (9 to 5) departments.
Bama finished the season with 31 wins, including a 16-2 record in conference play.
Alabama signed multiple top-100 prospects in the Class of 2023, with those being Kris Parker, Mouhamed Dioubate, and Sam Walters. One of their signees — Davin Cosby — is already enrolled at the school and with the team. The Tide also signed in-state guard R.J. Johnson from Huntsville.
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